For Better or Worse: Actress Tasha Smith (Image: TBS)

Tasha Smith—the Camden, NJ, around-the-way girl who we’ve grown to know and love as the feisty, boisterous, no nonsense Angela in Tyler Perry‘s Why Did I Get Married franchise—is unapologetically transparent about her personal struggles. From recovering from what she calls “heavy drug abuse” to her years earning money as a stripper, Smith’s ‘hood to Hollywood personal saga has not only made her relatable to so many, but earned her the respect of peers and fans alike.

Now, the newlywed actress makes her small screen debut as the leading lady of Tyler Perry’s For Better or Worse (premiering Nov. 25 on TBS at 10 p.m. EST), a weekly sitcom that offers an extended and more in-depth look at screen life of the constantly bickering WDIGM couple Angela and Marcus (Michael Jai White).

BlackEnterprise.com kicked it with the uncensored, statuesque beauty about whether she’s helping to perpetuate negative stereotypes about Black women, why Black men are no punks, and learning who to trust when it comes to business.

BlackEnterprise.com: Congrats! You have a new hubby and a new show, Tyler Perry’s For Better or Worse. What can folks expect from the small screen version of your Why Did I Get Married character Angela?

Tasha Smith: They are going to see more of a balance of Angela. Her home life is something that they didn’t get to see in Why Did I Get Married because she and Marcus were always traveling. She won’t just be going off and acting crazy, which I don’t really feel is her going off and being crazy as much as it is that she’s passionate and committed to her husband and marriage. Of course, Angela has some maturing to do, but a lot of women are insecure, fearful of abandonment, which makes them destructive and reactive. So people will see her as a wife, entrepreneur and mother, as well as see her vulnerability and her trying to change and do what’s right. Her fears and insecurities will resurface and bring back the old Angela, but I think she’s gotten to the point where she’s thinking, I’m sick of myself. I need to stop this cause it don’t make no sense going off and freaking out every time I think something is going to happen. (Laughs) She really is trying to be the bigger person.

There has been criticism that your character, Angela, promotes negative stereotypes about Black women: Loud, combative and ignorant. What do you say to those critics?

C’mon let’s be real: Any woman who has been in a relationship and has experienced anything close to what Angela and Marcus have knows things happen. People want to say Black women are loud, but everyone knows it was a white woman who cut off her man’s penis. You never heard a Black woman doing that! A Black woman might put a hoe in check; but she ain’t cutting off no penis. (Laughs) Angela’s passionate, and if people give [the show] a chance, they will see how she matures as we all do.

What do you hope people will walk away with from the show?

People are going to identify with a lot of the different relationships, and I want them to enjoy, laugh and be inspired.

Comedy on set: Smith with on-screen husband, Michael Jai White (Image: TBS)

Some men believe Angela’s hubby Marcus (Michael Jai White) must be a punk to tolerate her antics. Do you agree?

Marcus ain’t no punk! He’s just a bigger person and understands why Angela is the way that she is. Every man out there don’t take no junk. Think about it: when a man chooses to love [any woman] and understand her past and history, they give a lot of grace. The women who are in the relationship might suffer from abandonment issues because they might have grown up without a father, and if a man says, “I’m going to choose to love this woman [despite those issues],” then he’s going to be patient and kind. I think people are too quick to judge Angela and Marcus and don’t realize how much they love and understand one another—flaws and all.

Much like Angela, you speak truth and have been very candid about your past with using drugs and stripping. Do you think people have judged you about your past?

I think people have judged me and thought that I’m too transparent and I shouldn’t put all of my personal business out there. But for me, I’m free! There was a time when I had so much shame because of the things I’d done and been through. But to be able to have transparency without fear of anyone trying to hold that over my head, because we all know that people will try to do that if they believe it can destroy you. Can’t nobody tell your business like you, so I told it myself and I’m free.

We’ve enjoyed witnessing your growth on the silver screen. When you think about your career trajectory and personal brand, where do you see yourself in five years?

I gotta tell you, my husband, Keith Douglas [author of The Power to Get Wealth: No Money Required], and I launched SPI (Speaking Bureau Institute) to create opportunities for entertainers, singers and athletes to do motivational speaking. Between my film and TV background and my husband’s gospel music background, we felt there was a need to service all kinds of urban talent and give them a voice at conferences, colleges and other events. As a motivational speaker, I don’t believe enough Black talent is sought for these opportunities. Not that it’s only African-American talent, but we are focused on creating that voice in that space. Also, I just launched my own [unisex] fragrance called Us at justtasha.com, made from organic oil no heavy metals. We’ve already sold a few thousand dollars worth and it will be in some specialty stores. I’m excited we have body butter and body wash and this is something that my husband and I did on our own.

What is the best money advice you’ve ever received?

Best money advice was to save! Take an extra 10 percent and put it away. It’s not always about having a lot of money, but we are responsible. If we can go to the mall, then we can save.

What is the best business advice you’d give anyone?

I say this as a celebrity entertainer, we have to protect our brand. We have to choose our alliances carefully. People will try to be vultures, and if you have a brand of integrity and character, the wrong person can contaminate it if you don’t screen everybody who tries to approach you with a proposition. I believe this can apply to anyone who is starting a business or brand. Some people just want you just for your connections or simply just because you have something they don’t have. I’ve learned some hard lessons being introduced to the wrong people, and I’m still learning.

What is the one thing folks would be surprised to learn about Tasha Smith?

That I’m in bed by 9 pm! (Laughs) I swear I’m so corny. After I eat, I get ol’ school Black. You can catch me in the bed either eating some Twizzlers, watching my favorite TBS show For Better or Worse or just snoring!

How do you wish to be remembered?

That she loved God, people and tried to be a good person who helped and inspired many.

(Image: Thinkstock)

• Jobs Bill Acceptable in Piecemeal Fashion?

Almost a day after President Obama’s $447 billion jobs bill failed to pass in Congress, Senate Democrats agree to move forward with the commander-in-chief’s plan in pieces.  Dems want to bring at least two provisions to the floor as smaller portions of legislation: the renewal of a payroll-tax holiday for working Americans and a new venture in transportation infrastructure, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“We hope, moving forward, that perhaps by breaking it up Republicans will support it, said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, Reuters reports.

Read more at the Wall Street Journal…

• Nigerian Underwear Bomber Pleads Guilty

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab pleaded guilty to all eight charges—ranging from conspiracy to commit terrorism to attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction—Wednesday and admitted to trying to bring down Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas 2009.

The bomb tucked inside the 25-year-old’s underwear didn’t work, but he said he planned to kill all 300 passengers on the plan in retaliation for the killings of Muslims worldwide.

“I intended to wreck a U.S. aircraft for the U.S. wreckage of Muslim lands and property,” Abdulmutallab said, in a Washington Post report.

Read more at The Root…

Study Gives Glimpse into Social Media and TV Engagement

If you’ve ever logged onto a social networking site while a popular TV show was airing, you more than likely have seen an explosion of commentary—the good, bad and down-right ugly. A recent study from Nielsen and NM Incite takes a closer look at what demographics are engaging with TV across social media.

Click here to review some of the study’s charts and overall findings.

My problem with the series started with the title, and its “America in the good old days” premise. I found it disturbing. It even made me a little angry. Even at 13, I knew that what constituted happy days for many White Americans were anything but for me and mine, and Black America in general. Even today, it bothers me that my mother loved the show (and it’s spinoffs, Laverne & Shirley and Joanie & Chachi) and watched it religiously, which is why I ever saw any of it at all. (Ironically, I’ve come to respect and even admire several of the actors on these shows, especially Henry Winkler and Ron Howard, forever immortalized as Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli and Richie Cunningham, respectively.)

As I transitioned from teenager to young man, becoming a journalist and student activist at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., along the way, I became even more aware and repelled by how Happy Days pretended that the overt racial violence and Jim Crow discrimination that was alive and well in the 1950s either never happened or just wasn’t important. Of course, the cast was all White virtually through its entire decade-long run. In fact, the only Black actor to play a role of any significance at all on the show was Jack Baker, who played Bill “Sticks” Downy, a brother the Fonz hires to play drums in Richie’s band. Ironically, that piece of trivia was barely noticed in the 1970s, as Black actors were rarely hired as regular cast members on “White” shows regardless of the period they were set in.

Fast forward to 2011. It’s been just a few weeks since FOX aired the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards, a celebration so bereft of African Americans that it could easily be transported to the 1950s America of Happy Days and no one would even blink. (Okay, gay female host Jane Lynch may have given them a clue that something was amiss.) I mean, both Paul Robeson and Marion Anderson would have refused to perform at that worldwide broadcast of the television industry’s colossal failure at achieving the diversity and racial equality that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. fought and died for decades ago. (Or did he? If it didn’t happen on Happy Days, did it really happen?)

I hope I’ve given you some idea why I was never compelled to watch the critically acclaimed Mad Men, despite the fact that it is a four-time winner of the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series and that many of my friends (yes, most of whom are Black) absolutely love the show, which focuses on a fictional 1960s ad agency. It’s also why I have zero interest, at least so far, in the new shows Pan Am, ABC’s series about flight attendants in the 1960s, or NBC’s The Playboy Club, set in 1963. The good old days of Mad Men, Pan Am and The Playboy Club all send a familiar message to Black actors: no positions available. But leave your resume, just in case some token roles open up.

Click here to continue reading…

Let’s see. The adventures of top advertising industry execs in the 1960s? No positions available. (Look at the industry today. Nothing’s changed.) Blacks didn’t get to make their mark as leaders in advertising until they began launching their own firms in the late 1960s. The perils and passions of flight attendants in the 1960s? No positions available. The first Black flight attendant, Ruth Carol Taylor, was hired in 1957 by Mohawk Airlines, which did not provide passenger service (she was fired six months later for getting married, a no-no for an industry known for its outrageously discriminatory hiring policies). It took years for major passenger carriers to be forced to make token hires of Black flight attendants, with major carriers like Pan Am and stewardess unions fighting integration tooth and nail every step of the way.

How about frolicking with Playboy bunnies in the 1960s? There is at least some hope on this front, one because eternal playboy Hugh Hefner consistently pushed against racial barriers both at his mansion and in his magazine, and two because sexuality has always been an area where Black women, if only on a token level, could gain limited entry into the White world, nightlife being a prime venue for such interaction. Fittingly, The Playboy Club does have at least one Black cast member, Naturi Naughton as Bunny Brenda, who aspires to become the first Black Playmate in Playboy magazine (a color-line that was actually breached when Jennifer Jackson was selected as Playboy‘s March 1965 Playmate). Will we get to meet Bunny’s family, friends, boyfriends (assuming they are Black)? Like I said, leave your resume, just in case. (A Black Playmate spin-off? Slow your roll, playa.)

At least Mad Men has earned respect by consistently telling a story that is a historically accurate representation of the racist and sexist reality of the era it portrays—just one of the reasons my Black friends like it so much, but which also pretty much eliminates all but token opportunities for Black actors. Pan Am tries to have it both ways, reportedly planning to cast a Black flight attendant on the series even though there was likely no such thing on commercial airlines back then. If true, this is literally tokenism in fact and in fiction; cowardly at best, PC pandering at worst. If you’re going to cast a show about a Whites-only profession in an era of open racial discrimination in hiring, then just do it—don’t fake the funk.

Don’t get me wrong; nostalgia has its place in the hearts of Black Americans just as it does for White Americans. But that doesn’t change the fact that when it comes to happy days, we won’t find them looking over our shoulders. Our best history is in front of us. That’s clearly the case for Black actors and the television industry in general, at least on the equal opportunity, programming-that-looks-like-America tip. So when it comes to nostalgia TV, wake me up when we get to the 1970s, when American icons like Earl Graves, Don Cornelius, George Clinton, Max Robinson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Andrew Young, Diana Ross, Berry Gordy, Althea Gibson, Susan Taylor, Jessie Jackson, Gordon Parks, Tom Burrell, Richard Pryor, Billy Dee Williams and Maynard Jackson hit the scene. Make some TV series’ about those “happy days.” Dramatize those American stories. (Of course, you might have to actually hire Black actors and put Black casting directors, writers, producers and studio execs in charge.) Until then, I’m just not feeling the love.

Last year, 65% of people ages 18 to 29 named the Internet as their source for news, which almost doubled from 34% in 2007.  Those who did consider television as their main source slipped from 68% to 52% in that same time frame.

This trend is spreading to other age groups. Nearly half (48 %) of those in the 30-59 age range note the Internet as their central news source. This is up from 32% in 2007, whereas television dropped from 71% to 63%. The number of people 65 and older who pull their news from the Internet rose from 5% to 14%. On the other hand, of those in the 51-64 age group, 34% turn to the Internet, which is comparable to the number of people who name newspapers (38%) as their go-to source.

The study surveyed 1500 American adults, 41% saying they received their national and international news from the web—a 17% increase from 2007.

What do you think? Take our survey.

For related content, read:

Follow Black Enterprise at the Consumer Electronics Show

4/11: Green Machines –11 Eco-Friendly Cars for 2011

New FCC Rules Exclude the Way Blacks Get Online

Don Jackson

In the late 1960s, a colleague approached Don Jackson who was then an advertising sales manager for WVON, Chicago’s No. 1 black-oriented radio station, inviting him to work on the development of a new television show. The concept was an African American dance show and the creator was an aspiring disc jockey named Don Cornelius. After evaluating the concept, Jackson said: “Man, there is no way in hell a show called Soul Train will ever make it. Thank you, but no thank you.”

Of course, when Jackson called Cornelius, now a household name, more than a decade later to pitch his own idea, he had to eat his words. But the intrepid entrepreneur didn’t hesitate to contact his old friend because he knew his company, Central City Productions, could boost Soul Train’s flagging advertising revenues. “Cornelius was underpriced and losing coverage, losing time periods, and represented by people who didn’t have his best interest at stake,” reflects Jackson.

Jackson had already produced a successful slate of television programs and events that targeted African Americans and gained wide distribution for his vehicles through a partnership with media behemoth Tribune Co. Using that arrangement, he shared with Cornelius a blueprint for putting Soul Train on prime-time slots in top markets such as Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Miami, and Detroit. It was an offer Cornelius couldn’t refuse as well as testament to Jackson’s persistence. Jackson went on to distribute, syndicate, and sell advertising for the weekly program, generating more than $20 million in advertising over 23 years, and CCP earned more than $5 million in commissions. Jackson and Cornelius then launched the Soul Train Music Awards in 1987, which lasted 20 years under their management.

This is just one example of the business prowess of Jackson,  67, who has been responsible for operating one of the industry’s most prolific black-owned production companies and producing high-quality fare for African American audiences shown in syndication and on cable television networks. Now, CCP is celebrating its 40th anniversary and his $15 million enterprise is still going strong.

As a television viewer, you have undoubtedly seen one of Jackson’s productions throughout the years: CCP owns five programs—Know Your Heritage, which has provided close to $1 million in scholarships directly to high school student contestants on the game show; Black College Quiz; Hispanic College Quiz;  Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic, one of the largest parades in the U.S.; and the Stellar Awards, a gospel music showcase—and co-owns two other productions, including Our World with Black Enterprise and the Black Enterprise Business Report, formerly America’s Black Forum and Minority Business Report, respectively (CCP has been a media partner with black enterprise in the development of these programs for more than five years).

“One of the things I appreciate most is that we do positive programming. Oftentimes, when we watch TV, we see so many negative images of people of color, and African Americans in particular,” says Jennifer Jackson, general manager, executive in charge of productions, and Jackson’s niece. “It makes us feel good at the end of the day to show the world as we see it, which is people who are successful and doing really good things.”

Jackson maintains that in the past 10 years the roster of programs CCP produces and owns have experienced some of the highest ratings in more than three decades. Our World, for example, reaches 98% of black households in 145 markets and an average 2.7 rating (which represents 378,000 black households per week). “Don’s long-term vision and experience in the broadcast business made him a compelling partner for our entry into the television industry,” says Earl G. Graves Jr., president and CEO of Black Enterprise, which co-produces Our World and BEBR with Jackson. His knowledge of TV distribution and his ability to identify talent has made him  and CCP extremely valuable assets.” In addition, advertising revenues for the 2010 Trumpet Awards, an event, highlighting African American achievers, grew by about 15%. “He’s such a determined man,” says Xernona Clayton, who produced the awards show and worked as an executive at Turner Broadcasting Co. for nearly 30 years. “He is a man that sees there are no limits to your horizons of success.”

One of Jackson’s greatest success stories has been the production of the 25-year-old Stellar Awards, a syndicated television special featuring gospel music’s biggest superstars. This year, he signed Verizon Wireless as a first-time sponsor along with longtime advertisers including State Farm, Wal-Mart, and McDonald’s. Despite the recession, Jackson says the program increased revenue by 25%, and live, same-day viewership also increased by 32% according to Nielsen.

Jackson is also credited with launching the first-ever Black Nielsen Household Ratings Survey by which all black TV shows are measured by the advertising industry. “He is without a doubt one of the best visionaries I’ve ever seen,” says Erma Gray Davis, CCP’s president and COO. “He has some of the most wonderful ideas, in this arena, and I think he hasn’t gotten credit for a lot of those ideas.”

But before Jackson became a giant in independent television production, he was a giant on the basketball court leading John Marshall Metropolitan High School to the state championships in 1961. His success on the court led him to Northwestern University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in radio, television, and film on a basketball scholarship.

Soon afterward he became one of the youngest advertising sales managers at WVON, a radio station which was owned by Leonard Chess of Chess Records, a renowned blues music label at the time. But making millions for someone else wasn’t what he wanted. After Chess died and the radio station was sold, Jackson decided to strike out on his own with CCP.

In addition to producing shows that showcase African Americans in a positive light, Jackson has created hundreds of jobs for blacks working in television production. The Stellar Awards alone can employ 200 to 300 people for the event, he says. Also CCP has launched the careers of several black camera people, writers, and producers who went on to work for the Grammy Awards, Harpo Inc., Black Entertainment Television, and major network affiliates.

Still, the road hasn’t been entirely smooth for Jackson. In the late ’80s, broadcast television stations became more inclined to seek paid television advertising as opposed to independently produced programs. To this day, Jackson still wrestles to get his shows aired during peak hours on broadcast affiliates of the major networks, but now he takes his fight with broadcast stations directly to the advertisers.

“Broadcast stations have forgotten about programming to African Americans. They will tell you they don’t have the space for it,” he says. “They are going to say that they need more targeted dollars. When the advertising community supports it, and demands it, [then] it happens.”
But Jackson hasn’t kept his sights on CCP alone. In 1992, he and Ralph Moore started the Alliance of Business Leaders & Entrepreneurs (ABLE), a Chicago-based organization that has precipitated the growth of black business owners, including elite financial all-stars such as John Rogers of Ariel Investments L.L.C. (No. 5 on the BE Asset Managers list with $5.1 billion in assets under management), and Quintin Primo of Capri Capital Partners L.L.C. (No. 8 on the BE Asset Managers list with $3.8 billion in assets under management).

Jackson’s decades of experiences have prepared him for his most ambitious endeavor: Black Family Television Network, the faith-based news and entertainment channel he hopes to launch. He plans to finance BFTN by providing equity ownership to megachurches, institutions that collectively have 10 million-plus followers Jackson believes will also support the network. He says: “With the expertise we have in production, syndication, sales, and distribution, we are amply qualified to have our own network.”

Even without BFTN, Jackson has been a catalyst for industrywide diversity, creating vehicles that have showcased black talent in front of the camera as well as behind the scenes. As the mentor to the company’s next generation his legacy of tenacity and achievement will be a part of CCP’s DNA for decades to come.

[The agreement] “established our existence in broadcast cable,” said Ricky Anderson, BBN’s chairman and CEO. “The network will focus on programming that is appealing, interesting, entertaining and culturally relevant to urban viewers today.”

The deal “provides national broadcast distribution from New York to Los Angeles, with many major markets between the East Coast, West Coast, North, and South,” said Anderson.

The multiplatform network will focus on a variety of program genres featuring African American and Latino artists, casts, comedians, producers, filmmakers, and athletes. Programming includes the latest in movies, music, music videos, independent films, reality shows, comedy, and current affairs. Coverage includes black college sports, Battle of the Bands, the Premier Basketball League, Ringside Boxing, and such films as “Precious.”

The partnership, first announced in late December, is the Houston-based company’s first distribution deal. For those who do not have access to Verizon FIOS, BBN offers the ability to view content online with a monthly subscription for $3.99. BBN would not disclose the value of the deal.

The company was founded by Yusef F. Muhammad and Anderson in 2008 as a means to provide programming to underserved audiences.